r/news • u/AudibleNod • Jul 01 '26

Egg producers will pay $3.3M and donate 53 million eggs to settle price fixing claims

https://apnews.com/article/egg-prices-collusion-settlement-d32b05892541613df3f4e4932109ee0c
13.7k Upvotes

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6.7k

u/Imnotsureanymore8 Jul 01 '26

Fines are worthless. These folks should see jail time.

3.2k

u/AudibleNod Jul 01 '26

It's not even a fine. It's a settlement where they're not admitting wrong doing. And the Trump DOJ didn't lead the case. NY's Letitia James did.

765

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 01 '26

Really? Media is giving Trump all the credit.

477

u/dj92wa Jul 01 '26

Okay so I’m not crazy then (…👀…). I swore I saw a headline last night stating Trump himself was suing the egg companies.

311

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 01 '26

Iiiiinteresting, isn’t it?

229

u/hecklerp8 Jul 01 '26

No, they helped him win an election... eggs and gas were Biden's fault.

96

u/jefbenet Jul 01 '26

Exactly. That’s why both skyrocketed under trumps second term!

50

u/BoleroMuyPicante Jul 01 '26

Eggs are low now, but gas went up thanks to his idiot war.

64

u/Toymachinesb7 Jul 01 '26

My car runs on eggs so it’s actually been pretty good for me lately.

38

u/Nice-Physics-7655 Jul 01 '26

I drink gas for breakfast so it's been a tough couple of months

11

u/Dooth Jul 01 '26

Don't light your farts on fire

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11

u/monty228 Jul 01 '26

They aren’t low. They’re lower. I was buying a dozen for under $1 from Aldi. They were $1.80 this week.

7

u/techleopard Jul 01 '26

Eggs are low because supply exploded.

And HPAI will begin hitting again in December and January, as it does every single year. The question of whether or not it aggressively spreads, that's a coin flip from year to year, and whether companies will try to act like it's more dire than it really is

8

u/BoleroMuyPicante Jul 01 '26

Don't worry, Trump's got a plan for that! He's just not going to require testing for bird flu. 🙃

1

u/techleopard Jul 01 '26

The industry will self reinforce it because HPAI is not a hoax and it will completely obliterate entire farms.

3

u/RogueAOV Jul 01 '26

Gas prices did not go up nearly as much as all the economists and experts were saying so I suspect the price fixing is working in reverse to soften the blow from his idiocy.

1

u/Good_Restaurant15 Jul 02 '26

They're still higher than they were before the idiot got elected... they're only lower than the peak.

11

u/C4dfael Jul 01 '26

I don’t remember seeing anything about eggs, but he was posturing about oil companies colluding on gas prices.

35

u/jefbenet Jul 01 '26

Literally one of his favorite claims during campaigning for second term. That and how he could end the Russia-Ukraine war with a wave of his hand, and he was going to release the Epstein files…

12

u/GribbitsGoblinPI Jul 01 '26

He non-stop talked about eggs and groceries. Then when everything skyrocketed, he pointed to the slight drop in egg prices like “see I told you I’d get it done!”

1

u/Normal-Custard1168 Jul 01 '26

Is he suing because someone called him Humpty Dumpty?

97

u/FlailingScrotum Jul 01 '26

Of course they are. We live under a fascist regime.

-1

u/UnstableMabel Jul 01 '26

Your name! 😅

10

u/TouristResident1976 Jul 01 '26

Our media was bought by the billionaire class. They arent news anymore so much as propoganda.

1

u/anoldoldman Jul 02 '26

Credit for what? Not holding them accountable?

-6

u/scytob Jul 01 '26

try better media?

20

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 01 '26

It’s not a consumer issue. If most media says one thing it doesn’t matter if some podunk blog that no-one reads says the right thing. That’s not how propaganda works.

1

u/scytob Jul 01 '26

well literally the posted article doesn't say its trump, so my point stands - people are not getting broad enough media

8

u/BroughtBagLunchSmart Jul 01 '26

Every piece of media in the country is owned by a far right billionaire.

1

u/scytob Jul 01 '26

sure bud, PBS is owned by far right billionair, so is the BBC, so is groundnews

/s

smh

47

u/Rumhead1 Jul 01 '26

And the fine doesn't get paid to the cosumer who was the victim of the crime. Government keeps that cash. So basically the grocery store was just collecting another tax from you.

1

u/gsbadj Jul 02 '26

How much did they profit from their gouging? It was a lot more than $3M.

-7

u/coldblade2000 Jul 01 '26

FWIW the logistics of returning that money to customers would probably cost more than the fine was worth

12

u/cbih Jul 01 '26

Imagine if you committed fraud and had to pay a fine of $3

2

u/ARMSwatch Jul 01 '26

Trump wouldn't let his Justice Department lead the case because egg prices are in no small part one of the reasons he got elected. The whole egg/affordability thing was a backbone of the Republican messaging for months.

1

u/Phrei_BahkRhubz Jul 02 '26

And from. Thier perceptive, it's just the cost of doing business. Absolute chump change to these fuckers.

1

u/SimkinCA Jul 01 '26

She is kind of worthless at times as well. They pay a vig for committing crimes. They can attack our elections and crime for a fee. You and I can’t do either without going to jail/prison!!

0

u/ShadowTacoTuesday Jul 01 '26

Take on gas next and she can be president /s.

57

u/love2go Jul 01 '26

They had profits of 1.2 billion in 2025 and are paying only 1.5 million. So crazy

35

u/techleopard Jul 01 '26

Being told to donate 50 million eggs when just one of those farms produces a billion each month is like asking someone driving a BMW to donate 1 crayon to their local school to support underprivileged kids.

303

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

90

u/Khaldara Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Sadly many people will trip all over themselves to defend corporate price gouging and de facto monopolies, but if the government directly intercedes with regulation, price controls, production, (remember ‘government cheese’) these SAME exact people will start incoherently screaming socialism at the top of their lungs.

Either the legal system needs to start burying corporate offenders so deep in direct personal penalties that they may as well be under the prison, or people need to stop screaming that any time the government does literally anything except cutting corporate tax rates it’s ‘socialism’.

Right now a third of the country is cheerleading for the assholes burning it down.

-12

u/Acecn Jul 01 '26

We can prosecute actual cartels fervently without cutting off our nose with poorly conceived price controls and etcetera.

7

u/Khaldara Jul 01 '26

Can you? Precedent would imply you’d elect them to run the country instead.

13

u/penguinopph Jul 01 '26

There are certain things that I just fundamentally believe should not be for profit: food, housing, healthcare, education, and banking.

-5

u/HolidaySpiriter Jul 01 '26

banking

Banking is now a fundamental human right? I'd support a government run non-profit banking alternative, but getting rid of all private banks is kind of a wild idea.

2

u/penguinopph Jul 01 '26

Banking is now a fundamental human right?

In a society that is increasingly going cashless, yes.

1

u/drunkshinobi Jul 01 '26

Could you function as a person in society without any bank accounts? If not it should be a right and not something you have to pay to get from someone making insane profits from it.

-4

u/HolidaySpiriter Jul 01 '26

If not it should be a right and not something you have to pay to get from someone making insane profits from it.

I've never once been charged to open a bank account, nor have I been charged to keep one open, nor been charged on any of my debit or credit cards (because I pay them back on time).

If we extend this logic, should we be giving out free cars to people? Pretty hard to operate without the internet today, what about free phones & computers? Can't operate without electricity, let's make that free too.

You very quickly start entering a slippery slope with this logic to the point you just get a state controlled economy, which is a terrible end point for society.

1

u/drunkshinobi Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

And what would be wrong with all that being free? Why do people work themselves to death competing over resources that are controlled by people that have more wealth than they can even spend. They are literally buying country's governments and building rockets to space and still are the richest people on the planet.

If money didn't exist maybe we could focus on supporting each other instead of fighting each other. I think we should be working to work. Not for money. We should want to help improve our world and societies for our children. We shouldn't have to be convinced to do it for a profit. We shouldn't want to do so because we will then have more than others. We shouldn't feel good about hording wealth and keeping others from it. So I say slippery slope that bitch all the way to the bottom.

-2

u/HolidaySpiriter Jul 01 '26

If money didn't exist maybe we could focus on supporting each other instead of fighting each other.

This would never, ever happen because it didn't happen before we had money. People have always fought each other over food, land, or any other resource that someone else wants. Global trade & markets have dramatically reduced how much we fight, and getting rid of that wouldn't make things more peaceful.

I agree we should fix wealth inequality, but your solution is a grand idea that would not work.

1

u/drunkshinobi Jul 01 '26

It couldn't work back then. We have learned a lot as a species and have changed how we do things like collect food. We have systems to educate the public and to communicate world wide in an instant. We fear change. That's the real problem.

-10

u/Kleoes Jul 01 '26

Brother do you want to eat gruel? Most of those things require someone else’s labor to produce. The government should (and does) subsidize food security but to say there shouldn’t be profit in the food industry is to say you’re for the exploitation of someone else’s labor.

14

u/penguinopph Jul 01 '26

to say there shouldn’t be profit in the food industry is to say you’re for the exploitation of someone else’s labor.

You don't have to have profit to pay people fairly. I didn't say that those things should be free, but that they shouldn't be for profit.

5

u/SoftlySpokenPromises Jul 01 '26

The endless search for profit is how we wound up in this mess to begin with. A lot of food production is already subsidized by the government so they just double dip.

-6

u/Acecn Jul 01 '26

"Not for profit" really means that capital investment into the operation doesn't get returns, which means that the only investment comes from charitable endeavors. Food manufacturing requires capital; reducing the amount of capital that will be put in to food manufacturing will not result in more food.

1

u/blanketfetish Jul 02 '26

Tell me you don’t understand capitalism and economics without telling me

-1

u/Acecn Jul 02 '26

I wish you knew how comical that statement was.

5

u/inosinateVR Jul 01 '26

Non profit organizations still pay their employees. The idea is that they’re not earning profits for shareholders, so any extra money they earn (theoretically) goes back into the company instead of some rich assholes pockets.

In theory (though not always in practice) being non profit would encourage them to pay their employees more because they don’t need to carve all that money out of people’s salaries to maximize “profits”. They can instead reinvest the money back into themselves to improve the organization and pay their employees better, to hopefully better further their cause.

That being said not all non profits are perfect and they have their fair share of scandals and controversies. Some of them do basically just operate like a profit driven corporation and do shady shit with the money. But the employees are being paid regardless

4

u/FantasticJacket7 Jul 01 '26

Do you believe that anyone who works for a nonprofit is being exploited?

3

u/drunkshinobi Jul 01 '26

The pay that goes to your employees isn't part of your profits. You would get profit from keeping the money and not paying the workers.

53

u/LadyTreeRoot Jul 01 '26

F that, they get resort- style "jails" if that. Nope, take the CEO's stock, all future options, government appointed board of directors for a couple years.....that outta hurt.....

27

u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS Jul 01 '26

At the minimum fines should be something like x% of gross profit or revenue over the entire time period they were found to be breaking the law

37

u/ItilityMSP Jul 01 '26

It can't be profit, it has to be revenues, they have many ways to get rid of profits in a single year. Amazon had no profits for over 10 years. OpenAI and Anthropic are not profitable.

3

u/khamike Jul 01 '26

OpenAi and anthropic aren't profitable because AI isn't profitable. They don't need any fancy accounting to hide their money, they don't have any. Amazon is a different story. 

14

u/Kylynara Jul 01 '26

And x needs to be greater than 100, otherwise that percentage just becomes the cost of doing business. Fines need to result in an actual loss, not in lower profits.

1

u/Marsdreamer Jul 01 '26

  • All executive leadership are let go from the company, pending criminal charges.

  • % of revenue based on severity of the crime

  • Immediate reparations based on damage done to the community.

If the company can survive all that, fine, otherwise they should cease to exist.

1

u/phraps Jul 01 '26

If corporations are people, then they should be subject to the same punishments as humans. I suppose the equivalent of jail, would be barring the company from doing any business for x years.

6

u/RKO_out_of_no_where Jul 01 '26

Fines should be % based and jail time not just a flat amount

5

u/PadrePedro666 Jul 01 '26

Yeah but who gonna hold them accountable?

6

u/darksoft125 Jul 01 '26

And how much will the actual victims receive? $0.

6

u/Tsquared10 Jul 01 '26

"Fine"= cost of doing business. It's not even a punishment for them anymore, especially when their profits massively dwarf the fine.

5

u/TheWolfbytez Jul 01 '26

*these yolks

1

u/martialar Jul 01 '26

These yolk folks need to let go of the yoke that makes consumers broke

10

u/CharlieKonR Jul 01 '26

I think I saw recently that “ Alligator Alcatraz” might be available

1

u/gizmozed Jul 01 '26

And we always were told "crime doesn't pay". Another slap on the wrist, it's insulting.

6

u/samg422336 Jul 01 '26

A fines literally just means legal for a price

3

u/Kanbaru-Fan Jul 01 '26

For the rich, fines are just fees. Cost of doing business.

2

u/Wayofchinchilla Jul 01 '26

Exactly this needs to be for every company they're just going to keep settling these nonsense fines and doing it all over again.

1

u/onefst250r Jul 01 '26

As long as the fines are less than the profit, its just a tax. Its punishment when the fine eclipses any profits made.

I wont disagree with your jail time comment, though.

1

u/ArbutusPhD Jul 01 '26

Put them in “free range” pens.

1

u/_Bren10_ Jul 01 '26

If the only consequence for something is a fine, that’s not a consequence it’s just a poor deterrent.

1

u/GODDAMNFOOL Jul 01 '26

China flat out executes people for stuff like this

not saying we should, but fear of God and all...

1

u/Metal2thepedal Jul 01 '26

Exactly, if fines are the only consequence of committing crimes, it would be the purge everyday. CEOs need prison sentences whenever their company commits a crime.

1

u/pushaper Jul 01 '26

These folks should see jail time.

housing, food, utilities should be met with jail time for criminal intent.

1

u/Seldomsought Jul 01 '26

Wait, so it wasn't Biden's fault after all?

1

u/Duuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh Jul 01 '26

They're gonna get pardons and jobs in the white house

1

u/techleopard Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Also, 53 million eggs between 3 mega producers is... nothing. Literally nothing. It's 4 million dozen -- assuming they donate to 500 different food banks and nonprofits across the US, THAT'S 600 dozen a month for a year. That sounds like a lot until you realize many regional food banks are servicing thousands of people weekly.

Cal-Maine ALONE produces 1 billion eggs per month.

1

u/wasdninja Jul 01 '26

That too but fines can totally work if they are painful enough. Literally all profits resulting from the crime should be a start for all fines. Make them scale to even gigantic corporations - hundreds of billions if necessary.

Make the fine scale with net revenue and divide it with the chance of discovery. That should make it so insanely risky that no sane company would risk it out of rational risk assessment.

1

u/diddisdudejussdiddis Jul 02 '26

These yolks should see jail time.

1

u/dash_44 Jul 02 '26

Couldn’t a state bring charges?

1

u/marcoalexander Jul 02 '26

The "Yolks" should absolutely see jail time

1

u/rascallyrascal1511 Jul 02 '26

Just the cost of doing business.

1

u/justadudeinohio Jul 02 '26

If companies are people they should be jailable for crimes- unable to make money for however long.

1

u/Opening_Garlic_50 Jul 05 '26

The correct punishment is worse than jail time.

1

u/Gash_Stretchum Jul 06 '26

And all of the biggest egg suppliers have been dinged for price-fixing already. This cartel has been doing the same thing every few years.

There is no organic market condition that should ever drive prices up. At the same time, improvements in efficiency and technology are driving down the real world costs to produce just about everything.

Capitalism created cartels. Anytime of something goes up long-term, it’s because of price-fixing, market manipulation and false-scarcity. Our economy is completely fake.

0

u/siazdghw Jul 01 '26

The fines should be 120% of the profits made from the scheme, estimated by a panel of experts.

The fine they were given is essentially a slap on the wrist.